One product — one feature – UX Collective

Why only one?

Initially, Snapchat performed only one function — it allowed users to send each other images that disappeared after a while. Uber did not allow you to pre-book a taxi. Amazon started selling only books. Google was just a search engine. McDonald’s got rid of the cutlery. And why for some reason, we still believe that a successful product should do a lot of things?

Only one function, everything is just like this simple.

Two vectors for the development of a product or company can be identified: — the creation of new products and actions aimed at creating a new market or convincing potential customers to use new products, and — expanding the product offering more than necessary.

However, the same mistakes are often made by both experienced companies and those that only create their own path. New companies usually try to offer everything that their competitors have plus two times more, believing that this will attract more interest and increase market share. Companies with reputations believe that more money and resources spent on promotion will always bring better results.

In both cases, the business forgets about the psychological problem caused by too much supply and abundant functionality. How can new products solve this problem? Focusing on one thing in which they are good, on one main feature, on one main function.

Another reason many products fail, or companies cannot get new users — they offer too many options: features, services or products. If you suppress your users with an excess of things, people will always stick to what suits them at the moment and choose not to buy anything else. This process is called over choice or choice overload problem.

Overchoice is a cognitive process in which people have a difficult time making a decision when faced with many options.

New product — new behavior

People are creatures of habits. This is a question of evolution. Throughout its life, a person forms and creates many different templates. They become automatic and turn into habits, into something understandable and familiar. In such cases, it is very difficult for a business to change these habits. So new products cannot find their niche because people are not ready to change for their sake, change their patterns of behavior. People are not ready to learn new patterns for using new products just because they appeared on the market.

Thus, a truly innovative product is one that could change the habits and patterns of human behavior. For example, the iPhone is an innovation. It changed not only habits but also a person’s behavior, the perception of communication and not only.

If you want your product to become a habit, it must fulfill some very clear role and fulfill it perfectly. It is much easier to convince a person to learn a new pattern of behavior if learning a new product is simple and fast, and the reward for it is really high.

By adding things of functionality and unnecessary utility, manufacturers thereby increase the learning threshold for this product. It is considered to be that the more functional a product is, the more significant and demanded it is. But this does not always work this way.

Familiar and new experience.

Learning threshold

It is easier to change behavior if the threshold for product training is low. People do not like to take risks. So using a good product, they are less likely to replace it or start using a new one even if the new one is ahead of its functionality. Thus, if the learning threshold is low, the user very quickly masters the new product and becomes its follower, provided that the product is of high quality. Quality and fast learning of the product are the most key elements of innovation.

Reducing the learning threshold

People learn faster when the interface and actions of the digital world are metaphors of a familiar experience. Experience can come from any part and any sphere of human life. Metaphors work well because users interact with familiar objects, elements or procedures. People move their eyes to the side to see the content below as in a newspaper or magazine. They interact with the content, toggle switches, move the sliders, and scroll through the selection values using the experience they gained through interacting with physical objects.

Always try to find out what things and objects surround your customers, what interior, what appliances at home or in the office. How they use them. This will help to create a similar experience while using your product, as well as eliminate any problems related to learning.

Thus, during the creation or promotion of the product you should not forget about very simple, but important things:

The minimum number of basic product options should meet the needs of your customers. Do not offer unnecessary additional functionality. The product should perform one important function, but excellent.

Do not provide your users with a too wide range of features, functions, services — this will complicate the transition and use of your product.

Any innovative product is a new pattern of behavior. You should always analyze the necessary changes in the person’s habits for the switch to your product.

A new model of behavior in the new product involves learning. The lower the learning threshold for your product, the easier it is to switch users.

Reduce the learning threshold by studying your users, studying the objects — which surround them, and the objects — which they use every day. Carry in your products the user experience that familiar to your audience and it will undoubtedly seem familiar and convenient to them.